Alaves' form to hit a brick wall against Real Madrid

When looking at the facts, it is pretty clear why Real Madrid are strong favorites to wipe the floor with Alaves at the Santiago Bernabeu on Sunday.

They defeated Alaves 4-1 in the reverse fixture, they are the home side and Zinedine Zidane's team are top of La Liga, while Alaves are languishing in tenth.

However, recent form would suggest that Madrid might not have it all their own way. Mauricio Pellegrino is doing a terrific job with Alaves and they are on a streak at the moment.
The club, which is dwarfed by the size and stature of Real, have won four of their last six league matches. That being said, you would still be a brave person to take on the 16/1 price available for them to win here.

Madrid are on their own strong run, having won five of the past six in La Liga and are sitting two points ahead of their great rivals, Barcelona. Zidane will want to make sure his side don't take the foot of the pedal now that they are in the home stretch of the league.

They are priced at 1/8 to get the three points here, so there is no real value in backing them unless you want to lump a huge amount on.

The draw is an enticing 7/1, but you would be a brave person to take your chances on any result that isn't a Madrid win. There is far more value to be had in the goalscorer markets.

Cristiano Ronaldo got a brace against Hungary for Portugal last week and he is priced at an enticing 9/4 to get the first goal against Alaves.

If you think he will get another two goals, you can back him to score a brace at 6/5 and a hat trick at 3/1. Gareth Bale went close on several occasions during Wales' controversial draw with Ireland.

He looks like he is due a goal, so we are actually backing him to score first at a price of 4/1.

If you think that Madrid can match, or better, the margin they secured against the same side earlier in the season, you can back them to win by more than two goals at a price of 5/6.

Madrid's past two La Liga games both finished 2-1 to Zidane's side, while three of Alaves last six matches have finished with this result. It's a trend that some may consider meaningless, but it shows that both sides are vulnerable to conceding goals and clean sheets will probably not be present on Sunday.

If you want to follow this theory, you can back both teams to score at around 10/11. Or if you would prefer to back Madrid to win 2-1 again, you can get this score at a price of 10/1.